NBA Betting Picks March 15 – Golden State Warriors at Oklahoma City Thunder

Written by:
Phil Simon
Published on:
Mar/15/2019

Are we witnessing the downfall of the championship era for the Golden State Warriors? It’s been a chaotic season for the Dubs, and even coach Steve Kerr isn’t exempt from the criticism.


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The following article is courtesy of Bookmaker.eu

If the lip readers are right, Kerr has had enough of Draymond Green’s antics. Despite all the turmoil, the in-feuding and the questions about what’s going to happen with their free agents, the Warriors are still the class of the NBA, and they showed the Houston Rockets that they aren’t ready to give up the throne. The Dubs will look to send a message to the Oklahoma City Thunder in primetime on Saturday.

Golden State Warriors at Oklahoma City Thunder

Date and Time: Saturday, March 16, 2019, 8:30 p.m. ET

Location: Chesapeake Energy Arena, Oklahoma City, OK

Opening NBA Odds: Check Back Later

Warriors at Thunder TV Coverage: ABC

Odds Analysis

The regular season just takes up time until the playoffs begin for the Warriors. They were experiencing a 3-5 stretch heading into Wednesday’s game in Houston, where they played as an underdog for the first time since December. The Rockets were also the hottest team in the NBA with nine straight wins and three wins over the Dubs already this year. So, with everything going against the defending champs, they rose to the occasion, winning the game, 106-104, without Kevin Durant.

If the Thunder are going to entertain serious thoughts of overtaking the Warriors in the West, they better start playing better than they have the past few weeks. A loss to Indiana on Thursday ended a two-game winning streak, but it also dropped OKC to just 4-7 over its last 11 games and 3-10 against the spread in the past 13. Despite the collection of scoring talent on both sides, the under has proven fruitful recently. OKC has played below the closing total in 9 of its last 11 games while the Dubs have cashed the under in six straight and eight of the last nine.

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Warriors

You can never count out a team that has Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Durant, and now DeMarcus Cousins. Even when one of those guys doesn’t play, they are still dangerous, just like the Rockets found out on Wednesday. With KD sidelined with a bum ankle, the Dubs skidding and the Rockets riding high, we saw the defending champs listed as a 4-point dog on the closing NBA betting line. Wager against them at your own risk. Of course the Warriors haven’t been the best covering this season with a 27-39-1 ATS mark, but in big games they thrive.

We’ve seen the numbers from Cousins, and they’re special. But Boogie has never played on a team this stacked and there are concerns that his head will get in the way of his ability. He may be the one thing that prevents the Warriors from winning a third straight NBA title. If he continues the way he did against Houston, look out. Picking up the slack for Durant, Cousins had his best game in a Warriors uniform with 27 points on 11 of 16 shooting with eight rebounds and seven assists. The Warriors are arrogant enough to think they can change Boogie. If they’re right they probably have another title.

Thunder

The Thunder have two of the top performers in the league, and they’ve been carried all season by Paul George and Russell Westbrook. The problem is that there just hasn’t been consistent production from anyone else, and when one of the big two go down, unlike the Warriors, the trouble starts. George missed three games recently and not only did the Thunder lose two of them, their offense suffered, scoring no more than 104 points in any game. PG13 averages 28.2 per game and Russ 23.2, after that Dennis Schroeder is at 15.4.

Even when the duo is playing it doesn’t always guarantee success. With George dropping 36 on his former team and Russ collecting yet another triple-double, OKC still lost at Indiana on Thursday. George turned the ball over twice in the final minute and Russ missed a potential game-winning three in the waning seconds. The two giveth and the two taketh away.

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A back-to-back that finished off a stretch of five road games in their last six is over and the Thunder can exhale. They’ll also kick themselves over blowing a big lead to the Pacers. Playing the defending champs brings out the best in teams and OKC is no different. The atmosphere could be tempered a bit with KD likely out, and that saps some of Westbrook’s juice. We saw the Thunder steamroll the Dubs the last time the teams played, but they didn’t face Curry, Green and Cousins in that contest. The Warriors play to their competition and they rise in this one because they have more weapons, even if KD doesn’t play.

NBA Score Prediction: Warriors 113, Thunder 108

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